Mathematical Model for the BOD Curve

By : Seifedin B. 1
 Mathematical Model for the BOD Curve

By : Seifedin B. 2
 Mathematical Model for the BOD Curve

3. The BOD5 of a wastewater is 150mg/l at 20°c. The k

value is known to be 0.23 per day. What would
BOD 8 be, if the test was run at 15°?
Solution:

By : Seifedin B. 3
 CHAPTER THREE
PRELIMINARY AND PRIMARY
WWT METHODS
Preliminary wastewater treatment
Screening
Grit removal basins
Tanks for removing oils and grease
Primary wastewater treatment
Sedimentation
Sedimentation aided with
coagulation
By : Seifedin B. 4
Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
 Separating the floating materials, oils/greases and settleable
solids
 Reduces the BOD of the WW by about 15 to 30%
 The processes used are:
 Screening for removing floating papers, rags,
clothes, etc
 Grit chambers/Detritus tanks for removing grit
and sand
 Skimming tanks for removing oils and greases

By : Seifedin B. 5
 Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
Screening
 Sewage passes through screens to trap the floating
matter
 Protect the pumps and pipes from damages due to the
floating matter
 Screens placed before/after the grit chambers
depending on importance of grit quality
By : Seifedin B. 6
Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
Screening

By : Seifedin B. 7
collect about 6 liters of solids per million liters of sewage

Contd…
Screening
1. Types of screens, their designs and cleaning
i. Coarse screens;
 opening size is about 50 mm or more
 collect about 6 liters of solids per million liters of sewage
 Sludge will not decay but disposed of by incineration, burial, or
dumping
ii. Medium screens;
 spacing between bars is about 6 to 40 mm
 collect 30 to 90 liters of material per million liter of sewage
iii. Fine Screens;
 have perforations of 1.5 mm to 3 mm in size
 get clogged very often and need frequent cleaning

By : Seifedin B. 8
 Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
Screening
Comminutor

 Comminutors/Shredders break the larger solids to

about 6mm in size
 Comminutors reduce the solids’ size

By : Seifedin B. 9
 Contd…

Material separated by screens;

 is screenings
 contains 85 to 90% of moisture and other
floating matter
 disposed by burning/burial/dumping
 Burial is technically called composting
 screenings are buried in 1 to 1.5m deep trenches
and covered with 0.3 to 0.45m of porous earth.
Head loss in screening is computed as hL

Where u is approach velocity, V is velocity through

clean bars and C Byis: head
Seifedin B.
loss factor. 10
Examples: Screens

By : Seifedin B. 11
By : Seifedin B. 12
 contd’

Grit chambers/Grit channels/Detritus tanks are;

the sedimentation basins placed in front of the WWT plant
remove the inorganic particles (2.65 and ND of 0.15 to
0.20mm)
The amount of grit collected is a function of the removal
device, its operation and the quantity of grit in the sewage
• Grit chamber is a long narrow or circular tank
in the primary sewage treatment plant that is
designed to reduce the velocity of the flow
By : Seifedin B. 13
 Contd’

 The grit quantity may vary between;

0.004 - 0.037m3/1000m3 of sewage for
separate sewage system
0.004 - 0.180 m3/1000 m3 for com­bined
sewage system

By : Seifedin B. 14
 Contd’
1. Constant velocity horizontal flow grit
chambers
 Grit channel is an enlarged channel to reduce the
flow velocity to settle down heavy inorganic
materials by gravity
 The flow velocity should neither be too low as to
cause the settling of lighter organic matter, nor
should it be so high as not to cause the settlement of
the entire silt and grit
By : Seifedin B. 15
 contd’

 The depth and detention time are inter dependent and

based on settling velocity of inorganic particles
 A detention time of about 40 to 60 seconds is
sufficient for a water depth of about 1 to 1.8m
 The grit chambers can be cleaned at about 3 weeks
interval, either manually(smaller plants),
mechanically/hydraulically(larger plants)

By : Seifedin B. 16
 2. Detritus tank
 Detritus tanks are rectangular grit chambers for smaller flow
velocity (0.09m/sec) and longer detention periods (3 to 4
minutes) to separate larger grit and very fine sand particles
 Organic matter also settle and then separated from the grit by
control of currents in the tank through baffles, or by
controlled aeration of the flow through the tank
 The grit is removed continuously by means of scraper
mechanism

By : Seifedin B. 17
By : Seifedin B. 18
By : Seifedin B. 19
By : Seifedin B. 20
2

By : Seifedin B. 21
By : Seifedin B. 22
 Preliminary Wastewater Treatment
Tanks for removing oils and grease
1. Skimming tanks

 Skimming tanks placed before the sedimentation-tanks

 Air is blown
aerator device
by an aerating device
through the bottom
 The rising air tends to coagulate and congeal (solidify) the grease and
cause it to rise to the surface and removed
 The collected greasy materials are removed or skimmed off either by
hand or some mechanical equipment
 It may then be disposed of either by burning
By : Seifedin B. or burial 23
 Contd’

A detention period of about 3 to 5 minutes is used

 Compressed air required is about 300 to 6000m3 per million
liters of sewage
 The surface area required for the tank can be found:
q = rate of flow of sewage in m3/day
Vr = min. rising velocity of greasy
material to be removed in m/minute
= 0.25m/minute in most cases

By : Seifedin B. 24
 2. Disposal of skimming
 The oil and greasy material removed as skimming by burning
or burial
 It is generally too polluted to be of any economic use
 It may sometimes be converted in to soap lubricants, candles
and other non-edible products
 It may sometimes be digested in digesters, which prove
beneficial only if the mineral oils are less in amount and
vegetable and organic matters predominate
 The latter digest easily and produce gases of high fuel value

By : Seifedin B. 25
 Primary Wastewater Treatment
 Accomplished by sedimentation in settling basins
 The liquid effluent contains high suspended organic
material and BOD
 The organic solids separated out in the sedimentation
tanks are often stabilized by anaerobic
decomposition in a digestion tank or are incinerated
 The residue is used for landfills or soil conditioners

By : Seifedin B. 26
 contd’
1. Necessity of sedimentation

 Suspended organic solids which are too light ( not removed

by floatation) and too heavy (not removed by grit chambers)
are removed by the sedimentation tanks

By : Seifedin B. 27
 Contd’
 Sedimentation is a solid-liquid separation utilizing
gravitational settling to remove suspended solids.
 Sedimentation is accomplished by decreasing the
velocity of the water being treated to a point below
which the particles will no longer remain in
suspension.
 Commonly used unit operation in water and
wastewater treatment plants.

By : Seifedin B. 28
By : Seifedin B. 29
By : Seifedin B. 30
By : Seifedin B. 31
By : Seifedin B. 32
By : Seifedin B. 33
By : Seifedin B. 34
Type 1 – Discrete Settling

By : Seifedin B. 35
Terminal settling velocity

By : Seifedin B. 36
 Stokes’s Law
Re < 1, CD = 24 /Re

By : Seifedin B. 37
By : Seifedin B. 38
By : Seifedin B. 39
By : Seifedin B. 40
Ideal horizontal flow sedimentation basin

By : Seifedin B. 41
Discrete particle trajectories in
settling zone

By : Seifedin B. 42
 critical settling velocity
• The critical settling velocity Vo = ho/t

• Particles with settling velocity vs ≥ vo will be removed

By : Seifedin B. 43
 Design of Pre sedimentation Basin
• Purpose: remove easily settlable sand and silt.
• Location: upstream of any raw water pump facility
and as close as possible to the intake structure.
• For rectangular basins, the length can be estimated
by:

By : Seifedin B. 44
Typical pre sedimentation tank design

By : Seifedin B. 45
Example- pre sedimentation tank design

By : Seifedin B. 46
Solution

By : Seifedin B. 47
By : Seifedin B. 48
L=3w
A=L*w
3w*w=375
W=11.2m,L=33.6m
By : Seifedin B. 49
 Primary Wastewater Treatment
Sedimentation aided with coagulation
1. Chemical precipitation and coagulation

By : Seifedin B. 50
 Contd’
Disadvantages
i. Makes some of biological sewage treatment processes more
difficult
ii. The chemicals react with sewage and destroy certain micro-
organisms
iii. Cost of chemicals
iv. Larger quantities of sludge
v. Requires skilled supervision and handling of chemicals
Advantages
vi. For treating sewage from industries using some chemicals in
their processes
By : Seifedin B. 51
vii.Used for large seasonal variation in sewage flow
 Chapter 4
SECONDARY/BIOLOGICAL WASTEWATER
TREATMENT
Objectives of Biological Treatment
• Removal of dissolved & Colloidal organic matter
( BOD Reduction)
• Bacteria (cells) feed organic materials in the
wastewater which is transformed into cellular
mass
By : Seifedin B. 52
4.1 The Role of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment

• Microorganisms are always present in the environment

• Role of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, protozoa …)
• natural cycling of materials
• decomposition of organic wastes to more stable, less
polluting substances

• Waste from humans become a useful food substrate for the

microorganisms.
• The number and type of microorganisms depends on the
degree of pollution.
• in a badly polluted lake, there are fewer species but in larger
numbers
• in a healthy lake there can be many species present but in
lower numbers By : Seifedin B. 53
 Cont…
• Microorganisms require:
i. Cellular building blocks, (C, H, O, N, P, and minerals) for growth.
– These can be obtained from
• organic substances containing these elements
• inorganic materials (CO2, H2O, NO3- and PO42-)
ii. Energy
– Obtained through respiration
• organic carbon is oxidized to release its energy
– Oxygen or other hydrogen acceptors are needed for the respiration
process
– Algae and photosynthetic bacteria can also utilize energy from
sunlight
– Certain types of bacteria can utilize energy from chemical reactions
not involving respiration.

By : Seifedin B. 54
Cont…

By : Seifedin B. 55
 Cont
• In the treatment of wastewater, there are three types of overall
processes for the conversion of organic wastes by
microorganisms.
• The classification is based on the environment where the process
takes place:
i. Aerobic
• utilize oxygen to oxidize organic substances to obtain energy for
maintenance, mobility and the synthesis of cellular material.

By : Seifedin B. 56
 Cont…
ii. Anaerobic
• utilize nitrates, sulphates and other hydrogen acceptors to obtain
energy for the synthesis of cellular material from organic substances.

iii. Photosynthetic
• use CO2 as a carbon source, inorganic nutrients as sources of
phosphate and nitrogen and utilize light energy to drive the
conversion process.
Sunlight
aCO2 + rH2O + tNH3 CwHxOyNz + bO2 57
 4.2 Microbial Growth Kinetics
• The growth yield
is the weight of microorganisms produced per unit weight of
organic substances consumed by the microorganisms.
• The growth yield depends on:
– the type of substrate and

– environmental conditions
• The smaller the value of the growth yield the better it is for
waste treatment:
• because less sludge is produced which requires disposal

By : Seifedin B. 58
 Microbial Growth Kinetics
• Growth of a microbial population is defined as an
increase in numbers or an increase in microbial mass.
• Growth rate is the increase in microbial cell numbers or
𝑑𝑋
mass per unit time. 𝑟 𝑥 =
𝑑𝑡
• Microbial populations can grow as batch cultures
(closed systems) or as continuous cultures (open
systems).
Batch Cultures (four distinct phases)
i. Lag Phase
ii. Exponential Growth Phase (Log Phase)
iii. Stationary Phase
By : Seifedin B. 59
iv. Death Phase
 Bacterial Growth Curve
Number of bacteria

Lag phase

Time
By : Seifedin B. 60
 Bacterial Growth Curve
Number of bacteria

Log
Phase

Time
By : Seifedin B. 61
 Exponential Growth Phase (Log Phase)

• The number of cells increases exponentially during the log

phase.
• The exponential growth varies with the type of
microorganism and growth conditions (e.g. temperature,
medium composition).
μt dX
X t=X o e dt
=μX

Where µ - specific growth rate (h-1)

Xt - cell biomass or numbers after time t
Xo - initial number or biomass of cells

ln 𝑋 𝑡 − ln 𝑋 𝑜
𝜇=
𝑡 62
 Bacterial Growth Curve
Number of bacteria

Stationary
Phase

Time
By : Seifedin B. 63
 Bacterial Growth Curve
Number of bacteria

Death
Phase

Time
By : Seifedin B. 64
 Microbial Growth
• Region 1:
Lag phase
– microbes are adjusting
to the new substrate
(food source)
• Region 2
Exponential growth
phase
– microbes have
acclimated to the
conditions log X
[]
• Region 3 1 2 3 4
Stationary phase
– limiting substrate or
electron acceptor limits
the growth rate
• Region 4
Decay phase
– substrate supply has Time
been exhausted By : Seifedin B. 65
 chapter 5
WASTE WATER EFFLUENT DISPOSAL TECHNIQUES
SEWAGE EFFLUENT DISPOSAL

66
 Introduction
• The wastewater after conveying through sewers, the next
step is its disposal, either after treatment or even before
treatment.
• Treated or untreated sewage dumped into streams can
upset the ecological stability of the stream by depleting the
dissolved oxygen.
• through natural processes and bacterial activity, streams
can purify themselves

• High concentration of organic substances encourage the

growth of decomposers such as bacteria and fungi.
67
 Contd’
• The normal amount of dissolved oxygen in streams is above
9mg/l at 20°c water temperature.
• As the level of DO decreases to 5mg/l, sensitive organisms
will disappear.
• Ultimately, bacteria of facultative and anaerobic types exist.
• Due to reaeration, streams do not reach a 0mg/l DO level
and thus occasionally go anaerobic.

• The degree of pollution and the character of the stream

determine the amount of time the self-purification
progress will take.
68
 Contd’
• Two general methods of disposing sewage effluents:
1. Disposal in water (dilution)
2. Disposal on land
1. Disposal in water
• the process whereby the treated sewage or the effluent from the
sewage treatment plant is discharged into water body.
• The discharged sewage, in due course of time, is purified by what
is known as self purification process of natural waters.
• The degree and amount of treatment given to raw sewage before
disposing it off into the river depend upon:
– the quality of raw sewage
– the self purification capacity of the river stream and the intended
use of its water
69
 Conditions favoring disposal by dilution

 When sewage is comparatively fresh (4 to 5 hr old), and free

from floating and settle able solids
 When the diluting water has high DO content.
 Where diluting waters are not used for the purpose of
navigation or water supply for at least some reasonable distance
on the downstream from the point of sewage disposal.
 Where the flow currents of the diluting waters are favorable,
causing no deposition, nuisance or destruction of aquatic life.
 When the outfall sewer of the city or the treatment plant is
situated near some natural waters having large volumes.

70
Self purification of natural streams

• When sewage is discharged into a natural body of water,

the receiving water gets polluted due to waste products,
present in sewage effluents.
• The natural forces of purification, go on acting upon the
pollution elements, and bring back the water into its
original condition.
• This automatic purification of polluted water, in due
course, is called the self-purification phenomenon.
• If the self-purification is not achieved successfully either
due to too much of pollution discharged into it or due to
other causes, the river water itself will get polluted. 71
 Self purification of natural streams
• The various natural forces of purification which help self-
purification process are:
• Physical forces:
– Dilution and dispersion
– Sedimentation
– Sunlight (acts through bio-chemical reactions)
• Chemical forces aided by biological forces (called bio
chemical forces):
– Oxidation (Bio)
– Reduction

72
 Dilution and Dispersion
• When the putrescible organic matter is discharged into a large volume
of water contained in the river-stream gets rapidly dispersed and
diluted.
• The concentration of organic matter will diminish, and thus reduces
the potential nuisance of sewage.
• When sewage of concentration Cs flows at a rate Qs in to a river stream
with concentration CR flowing at a rate QR, the concentration Cm of the
resulting mixture is given by:
𝑪 𝒔 𝑸 𝒔 +𝑪 𝑹 𝑸 𝑹=𝐂𝒎 (𝑸 𝒔 +𝑸 𝑹 )
𝑪𝒔 𝑸𝒔 + 𝑪𝑹𝑸 𝑹
𝐂𝒎 =
𝑸 𝒔 +𝑸 𝑹

• The concentrations in the sewage and river represents:

oxygen content, BOD, Suspended sediments , Temp and 73
other characteristic contents of sewage
 Sedimentation and Sunlight

Sedimentation
• The settleable solids will settle down into the bed of the river,
near the outfall of sewage, helping in the self purification
process.
Sun-light
• The sun light has a bleaching and stabilizing effect of bacteria.
• It also helps certain micro-organisms to derive energy from it
by a process known as photosynthesis.
• The evolution of oxygen in river water due to sunlight will help
in achieving self-purification through oxidation.

74
 Oxidation and reduction
Oxidation
• The oxidation of the organic matter present in sewage effluents will
start as soon as the sewage outfalls into the river water containing
dissolved oxygen.
• The deficiency of oxygen so created, will be filled up by the
atmospheric oxygen.
• The process of oxidation will continue till the organic matter has
been completely oxidized.
Reduction
• Reduction occurs due to hydrolysis of organic matter settled at
the bottom either chemically or biologically.
• Anaerobic bacteria will help in splitting the complex organic
con­stituents of sewage into liquids and gases:
– paving the way for their ultimate stabilization by oxidation 75
 Self purification of natural streams

 Factors affecting the natural forces of purification:

i. Temperature (on biological activity and DO)
ii. Turbulence in the body of water
iii. Velocity and surface expanse of the river-stream
iv. Available DO
v. Amount and type of organic matter present
vi. Rate of re-aeration

76
 Zones of Pollution in a River/Stream
• A polluted stream undergoing self-purification can be
divided into the following four zones:
1. Zone of degradation
2. Zone of active decomposition
3. Zone of recovery
4. Zone of cleaner water

77
 Zone of degradation or pollution
• found for a certain length just below the point where
sewage is discharged into the river-stream.
• characterized by:
– Water becoming dark and turbid with formation of sludge
deposits at the bottom.
– DO is reduced to about 40% of the saturation value.
– Re-oxygenation rate is slower than de-oxygenation rate.
– Algae die out
– Bacteria count is high and increasing
– Lower species diversity
– Increase in number of individuals per species
78
– High BOD
 Zone of active decomposition
• marked by heavy pollution.
• characterized by:
– Water becoming grayish & darker than the previous zone.
– DO concentration falls down to zero and anaerobic conditions
may set in with the evolution of gases like CH4, CO2, H2S, etc.
– Re-aeration sets in and DO again rises to the original level
(about 40%).
– BOD is high but decreasing
– Bacteria flora will increase
– Protozoa and fungi will first disappear and then reappear.
– Fish life will be absent.
– Algae will also mostly be absent.
79
 Zone of recovery
• The river stream tries to recover from its degraded condition to
its former appearance.
• characterized by:
– The water becomes clearer, and so the algae reappear while
fungi decrease.
– BOD falls down and DO content rises above 40% DOsat
– Lower organic content
– Less turbid and lighter in color
– Number of bacteria decreases
– Protozoa, and large plants like Sponges, etc. reappear.
– The organic material will be mineralized to form nitrates,
sulphates, phosphates, carbonates, etc.
80
 Zone of cleaner water

• The river attains its original conditions with DO rising up to

the saturation value.
• characterized by:
– Water becomes attractive in appearance
– Game fish (which requires at least 4 to 5mg/l of DO) and usual
aquatic life prevails.
– Some pathogenic organisms may still survive and remain
present, which confirms the fact that:

"when once river water has been polluted, it will

not be safe to drink it, unless it is properly
treated."
81
 Indices of Self-Purification
• The stage of self-purification process can be determined by
the:
– physical
– chemical
– biological analysis of the water

• Color and turbidity are the physical indices

• DO, BOD and suspended solids are the chemical indices
which can mark the stages of purification.
• The biological growth present in water can indicate the
stage of purification process.
82
Indices of Self-Purification

83
 Oxygen deficit of a polluted river-stream

• The oxygen deficit Dt at any time in a polluted river is the

difference between the actual DO content of water at that
time and the saturation DO content.
𝐎𝐱𝐲𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 ( 𝑫 𝒕 ) =𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐎 ( 𝑪 𝒔 ) − 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐎 ( 𝑪 )

• The normal saturation DO value for fresh water varies

between 14.6 mg/l @ 0°c to 7.6 mg/l @ 30°c water temp.

• In order to maintain clean conditions in a river-stream, the

oxygen deficit must be nil
– can be found out by knowing the rates of de-oxygenation and
re-oxygenation
84
 De-oxygenation Curve
• In a polluted stream, the DO content goes on reducing due
to decomposition of volatile organic matter.
• The rate of de-oxygenation depends upon:
– amount of the organic matter remaining to be oxidized at the
given time (Lt)
– temperature of reaction (T)
• At a given temperature, the curve showing depletion of DO
with time (similar to the 1st stage BOD curve).
• It can also be expressed mathematically as:
𝒅𝑳𝒕
( )
𝒅𝑪
=
𝒅𝒕 𝒅 𝒅𝒕
=− 𝑲 𝑫 𝑳𝒕
85
 Re-oxygenation Curve
• To counter-balance the consumption of DO due to de-
oxygenation, atmosphere supplies oxygen to the water
and the process is called re-oxygenation.
• The rate at which the oxygen is supplied by the
atmosphere to the polluted water depends upon:
– depth of the receiving water (more in a shallow depth)
– condition of the body of water (rate is more in a running stream
than in a quiescent pond)
– saturation deficit or oxygen deficit
– temperature of water

• Rate of re-oxygenation can be D expressed

- Oxygen deficit

( )
t
𝒅𝑪
= 𝑲 𝑹 (𝑪¿¿ 𝒔− 𝑪)= 𝑲 𝑹 𝑫 𝒕 ¿
mathematically: 𝒅𝒕
86
 Oxygen Deficit Curve

Figure: De-oxygenation, re-oxygenation and oxygen sag curve

87
 Example
1. The sewage of a town is to be discharged into a river
stream. The quantity of sewage produced per day is 8
million liters, and its BOD is 250 mg/l. If the discharge in
the river is 200 l/s and its BOD is 6 mg/l, find out the BOD
of the diluted water.
Answer
Cm = 83.22 mg/l

2. What should be the river discharge if it is desired to

reduce the BOD of diluted water to 20 mg/l.
Answer
QR = 1521.3l/s
88